Assortment Of Garbage

I was walking past this assortment of garbage on East 4th Street this past Thursday, when something jumped out at me:

Assortment of garbage.

No, it wasn't a rat! It was this:

Book and bus transfer.

$25?! Who would pay $25 for this? The price in about 1963 was $3.95.

What's funny is that the inscription is just a repeat of the copyright page.

Sentimental, indeed!

#eastvillage #garbage #books #recycling #bustransfer

Discarded Books

What do East Villagers do with books they don't want?

Balance them over the opening of a trash can, of course!

Over the opening.

That's quite an assortment!

Some of the books slid off, it looks like:

Off of the lid and into the can.

There was a time when books no one read would gather dust on the shelves of used bookstores. These days, East Villagers collect the books they don't read on Kindles!

#eastvillage #abandonedbooks #trashcans #books

Another Success

Whenever East Village Today points out a mess that needs to be cleaned, or renovations needed to store fronts, they get fixed!

Back around, oh, October 30th or so, I wrote about an itinerant bookseller outside the formerly-beloved Chase Bank branch on Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place, who put his books on the sidewalk instead of on a table.

No doubt after having read my post, there is now a table at this location:

A table.

Wow — I forgot the Spiderman mosaic was there!

#eastvillage #booksellers #booktables #books #chasebank #constructionsite #mosaics #renovations #secondavenue #spiderman #stmarksplace

Itinerant Bookseller

As I wrote in Vandals & Vendors:

Since the closing of our local Chase Bank, the corner of Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place has become a very popular location for vandals and itinerant street-vendors alike.

You might not have noticed from the pictures I showed (especially since I didn't call attention to it), but there is an itinerant bookseller on that corner too:

Itinerant book seller.

Most street booksellers put their books on tables, but this is a no-frills corner!

So if you're looking for something cheap to read, you could probably do worse than buying a book here.

#eastvillage #books #booksellers #chasebank #graffiti #secondavenue #stmarksplace

Recycling Poetry

I was walking across (you guessed it!) St. Mark's Place one recent Saturday morning, when I saw this lone book on the stairs of a building:

Lone book.

On closer inspection, it turned out to be an uncorrected proof of Kenneth Koch's finest collection of poems: New Addresses:

New Addresses.

East Village Today leaves things as they're found, but not everyone does. When I passed by again later that morning, the uncorrected proof was gone!

Book gone.

You might say it found a new address!

#eastvillage #books #kennethkoch #recycling #stairs #newaddresses #poetry #uncorrectedproofs #stmarksplace

Airing Out the Books

I was walking across St. Mark's Place last week, when I came upon this scene, outside the formerly-beloved Simone Martini Bar on First Avenue:

Airing out the books.

You can see by the foot on the right side of the picture that activity was taking place inside. Well, you can't see that, but you can infer it!

My psychic-detective powers tell me that something new is opening at this location — something that will use old books as part of the decor!

Fresh-smelling old books… in the East Village Today!

#eastvillage #books #firstavenue #stmarksplace #psychicdetective

More Abandoned Books

I was walking down Avenue A this past Sunday, when I saw these books abandoned beside a garbage can:

Abandoned books.

The funny thing about this is that just to the right, outside the frame of this picture, there is a woman who sells books from a table!

She only sells paperback books though, and these are hardcover.

They're probably on the beloved junk table by now!

#eastvillage #avenuea #books

Unintended Consequences

Back at the beginning of this month, I mentioned a guy who sells books that "no one would buy even if they were the last books on the planet".

I went over to Avenue A the next day to get a picture of his table, but then I didn't post it! (You know how that goes!) As it turns out, I didn't even save it!

Recently, some East Villagers complained that the sidewalk on the stretch of Avenue A between East 2nd and 3rd Streets was being blocked. They probably intended to impinge upon the New York Sports Club, which is improving the sidewalk in front of their new facility. However, unintended consequences being what they are, this beloved street peddler felt the brunt of their wrath, when his stack of (mostly) junk was hauled away by the Department of Sanitation:

Feeling the brunt of a complainer's wrath.

Be careful what you wish for… in the East Village Today!

#eastvillage #avenuea #newyorksportsclub #streetvendors #books #sanitationdepartmentworkers

Abandoned Books

Abandoned books are rarely worth reading. If they were any good, people would leave them on their bookshelves, for others to admire.

I saw these two books on a bench in Tompkins Square Park this past Thursday morning:

Two books on a bench.

They're probably already on the table of the guy on Avenue A who sells books no one would read even if they were the last books on the planet!

On a side note, what happens with Kindle books people no longer want? Is there a cyber-bench where they can be left for others to claim and try to re-sell?

#eastvillage #books #tompkinssquarepark